Unemployment up sharply despite GDP growth

Unemployment rose dramatically to 10.2% in October, the highest rate since March of 1983, and 190,000 payroll jobs were lost. This is in spite of the fact that the economy is now growing. “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has stopped the free-fall, but the scale of economic decline has been so large that it has not been enough to prevent rising unemployment. Today’s unemployment numbers are a wake-up call. Our leaders need to authorize substantial additional spending for relief and job creation in order to prevent unemployment from remaining elevated for years to come,” said EPI economist Heidi Shierholz. “Unemployment has now exceeded what some thought would be the peak. With such a huge fire we need every hose we can find to put it out,” said EPI’s president Lawrence Mishel.